


A Dad by any other Name (Would still smell like aftershave).

by Jinglies



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Adoption, Crossover, Gen, Non-Chronological, Snippets, There is one (1) swear in this, parenting, vague mention of PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 02:02:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12830976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinglies/pseuds/Jinglies
Summary: Out of order snippets of Cor Leonis' life with his two adopted sons.





	A Dad by any other Name (Would still smell like aftershave).

Cor could feel Regis and Clarus' eyes on the back of his head.  
  
Cloud, on that Six-forsaken motorcycle he _forbade_ his son from riding today had just skidded around the corner, through the gatehouse and right up to the Citidel steps.

The feeling of his teenaged sins crawling up his spine was going to kill him.

"Cloud!" Cor shouted, a sharp bark out of his mouth before he remembered his audience included not only the King, but the Prince, his little advisor Ignis, the far too impressionable Gladio , his commanding officer Clarus, six of his own from the Crownsguard, four Kingsglaive and of course, Prompto.

Prompto who was clinging to Cor's forearm like he'd run away if he let go.

Shouting wouldn't solve it.

It never did with Cloud.

"Sorry I'm late," Cloud said, shaking his hair out after taking off his helmet. Cor watched his face, he could practically hear the gears in that head turning to think of an excuse. "I got stuck in traffic."

"Ah yes, that _notorious_ eleven am on a Sunday traffic." Regis said, taking a few steps down. "You've certainly grown since last you were here."

Cor let Prompto change his grip, little hand now grabbing onto both his and Cloud's hands.

"The statue over there was carved from Altissian white marble in 203" Prompto whispered the best a nine-year-old could at his older brother - parroting what Ignis had said minute earlier. "It's pretty cool, huh?"

Cloud regarded the Statue, a fine marble piece, Showing what Cor knew to be the Gilgamesh, but Ignis had described as a ' _minor demi-god of honour in battle'_

Cloud nodded, at his brother, smiling just a bit as Prompto's face lit up.

"We're just going to let that bike sit there?" Clarus whispered to Regis.

"Let it be a testment of youthful rebellion." Regis said looking at Cor. "Down with the establishment - Six save the king and all that."

"That's a little past his time, isn't it?" Cor asked, looking at sons getting their ears talked off about Altissian marble carvings in the old quarter.

"True, that sorta stuff was more Cor's scene when he was Cloud's age." Clarus said, eyes flicking between Gladio trying to gawp at Cloud's motorcycle and Cor's ever knitted brows.

"Punk is eternal, Clarus - come," Regis clapped his hands together, getting the attention of all the children "Let's hassle the establishment for brunch."

\---

Cor remembers, with a heavy heart  the day he met Cloud and Prompto.

He saw Prompto first, the boy barely eighteen months old, sitting on his diapered behind in the hallway of his foster family's home.

Cloud had come running into the hall, barefoot on hardwood and scooped the baby up, clutching him to his chest before running upstairs.

The shouts of their guardians following shortly.

"He's got it into his head that you're going to split them up..." One of the women had said, "We get a lot of offers for just Prompto but that'd be awfully cruel...with all they've been through together."

"I know that, that's why I'm here." Cor said, schooling the offense out of his voice. "Two boys - both from Gralea, right?"

There was a solemn nod from the woman.

"You've read their record - and I wouldn't give them up to anyone but another Crownsguard." She poured a cup of tea for Cor. "Have you ever seen Gralea, Marshall?"

Cor shook his head.

"It's...like another world." She took a sip of her own tea. "The thing these boys would have seen..." She shivered and sighed. "He's going to be a bit of a wild ride to raise."

"I'm ready for that challenge." Cor said, head whipping around at the sound of the baby whining loudly.

The other woman came back into the hall, holding a pudgy little toddler who in his chubby little fists was holding a sky blue blanket.

And then Cloud, trailing behind looking off to the side with his eyes rimmed red and dried snot on his cheek. Barely a day over seven but the same energy as a feral cat.

Cor noticed it in the half light of the hall between the kitchen and the front door.

Cloud's eyes glowed.

"If you're _certain_ then, Marshall."

\---

Cloud is never _loud_ Cor notes.

He manages to hear  - for the first time - Cloud whisper to his brother - when they're about two  and nine - in a language he'd never heard spoken without it being  shouted.

Gralean.

Prompto grabs at his brother's hands and tries to focus his eyes as Cloud repeats a word or a phrase over and over again.

He slips his phone out of his pocket and taps his best guess at the phonetics into Moogle translate.

_Heavy little cabbage._

"Cloud - " He pauses, thinking perhaps he shouldn't intrude.

Cloud looks at Cor and tilts his head.

"What...are you saying to him?"

Cloud's cheeks redden a little - the first time he'd seen him look his age.

Prompto grins with all the teeth he's got - glasses askew and repeats what Cloud said, little mouth having a little trouble with the heavy _th_ sounds.

"It's a name for a ..." Cloud looks down at his brother then scoots his face to Cor's ear. "For a chubby baby."

"Is it a nice thing to call your brother?" Cor asks, letting Prompto grab at his wrist.

Cloud shrugs.

"He is what he is."

Cor sighs.

\---

  
Cloud corrects Cor everytime he says Niflheim.

" _Nibelheim_." Cloud says, exasperation clear in his voice.

"What else am I saying wrong?" Cor sighs.

"Geostigma and Starscourge are the same thing." He says flatly.

"Thank you _Cloud_."

"You also have a weird accent when you say Tenebrae."

" _Thank you. Cloud."_

\---

"I appreciate the _organisation_ that went into this petition, boys." Cor says, laying the piece of paper down on the coffee table - signed by the Crown Price of Lucis himself. " _and_ the misuse of the official royal insignia stamp."

"But?" Prompto said, holding his breath.

"I- just..." Cor faltered in his resolve. "I don't like-"

Cloud looked at his father's hands, gripping his lounge pants tight.

"Video games?" Prompto asked, sitting on the floor with a thump. "Fun?"

"...I don't like the sounds of _those_ games." Cor said, not meeting either of his son's eyes. "You can play them with Noct or at the arcade just not..."

Cor searched his son's faces for relief but found none.

“ _Please_ not in the house.”

"Dad?" Cloud said, leaning down to meet his sitting father's gaze. "What's up?"

"Daddy what's wrong?" Prompto leaned in, trying to see around Cloud.

"Screaming." Cor said gaze dropping to his slippers. "That sound of guns and swords - I can't really... _handle it._ " His hands shook as he tried to make a gesture.

  
Cloud's eyes widened in realisation.

 

Prompto’s mouth opened and apologies began spilling out mile a minute.  
  


"Dad I'm so-so-so _SO_ Sorry!" Prompto pushed into him, grabbing Cor around his middle.

 

Cor ran his shaking hand through Prompto's fluffy hair.  
  


"That's...really obvious now that I think about it." Cloud said, sitting on the edge of the table. “Sorry Dad, we shouldn’t have pushed it.”  
  


"I'm sorry guys - it just puts me on edge like nothing else." Cor said, sighing when Prompto squeezed him tighter.  
  


"Hey Dad, don't worry about it." Cloud said, loosely putting his arms around his father's shoulders. "Just be honest next time, we get it."

Prompto hummed in agreement.  
  


" _Six_ you've got a good grip on my innards there, Prom!" Cor wheezed a laugh as Prompto's hug let up.

Cloud pulled his dad in closer, holding him until the oven timer went off for their dinner.

  
\---

 

Cor sat in his study, Prompto asleep for the past hour and a half, the faint droning of the TV letting him know Cloud was still awake. He looks over reports - records - footage of training, his feet on the desk in front of him.

That is until he hears his door creak all the way open.

"Cor?"

"Mm?" Cor says, finishing up the paragrah he's on before he meets the forever unsettling low-light glow of Cloud's eyes.

"I want to tell you something."

"Sure, go ahead." Cor sits up straight, putting his hands on his lap.

"Me Prompto - Prompto and _I_." Cloud says. "We're not normal."

"Oh?" Cor says, feigning shock at the admission. "Go on then."

"We're..." Cloud falters, looking to the doorway for a moment. His voice drops to a whisper. "We weren't born right."

Cor takes a moment to look at the concern on his Cloud's face.

"You get shit at school again?" Cor says, voice dark. "I can come in the morning to see the Pr-"

"Not that" Cloud puts his hands on Cor's desk. "I barely remember - but I think there's something inside us..."

Cor can see the shine in Cloud's eyes from the glow of the computer screen.

"I got more of it I think - with Prom I think he's hurt more by it."

Cor considers - just for a second telling Cloud that he knows about the lab, about his DNA and how deep it all goes. But he'd much rather his fourteen year old son sleep that night.

\--

Prompto said it first.

"Dad!" His little lungs screamed it at him until Cor recognised that the toddler was calling for him.

Prompto was  just about two years old and never stopped.

With Cloud it takes longer - mostly when he's sad, tired or scared.

Cor will never forget Cloud's open sobbing into his shoulder as the news of Bethisia and Aldercapt being killed by a mercenary was announced.

He rubbed his hand over his son's shaking shoulders, telling him it was _ok_ \- that this is the beginning of the end for the empire.

Cloud at ten years old, three years after his adoption called him Dad.

"Dad I'm just so -" Cloud's face screwed up again and he buried it in Cor's neck.

"I know baby, you let it all out."

He feels the laugh Cloud let out at called _baby_ against his chest.

"I'm not a baby, Cor."

 _Ouch_.

"I'm your dad, Cloud." Cor squeezed him tighter "You're gonna be my _baby_ in your sixties."

Cloud laughs again, a happy little bubbly noise Cor hadn't heard him make in months.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> This whole thing was barely edited, I've got to be asleep in 45 minutes I've got work in the morning. Thank you for putting up with the Fucky formatting.
> 
> Maybe I'll fix it later (I won't.)
> 
> Decerterus.tumblr.com


End file.
